geo exam 2

Political ecology - questions it seeks to answer

• how are environmental problems produced

• what are the uneven effects of environmental problems - how to race and culture factor in

• what are possible responses to these problems

political ecology - what is it

political ecology is an understanding that nature and society are produced together in a political economy that includes humans and nonhumans

1st major political ecology narrative ***

Degradation and marginalization thesis

• production systems undergo transition to overexploitation of natural resources that they depend on as a response to state development intervention/increasing integration in regional and global markets

• sustainable community management is hypothesized to become unsustainable bc of efforts by authorities to enclose traditional collective property or impose new/foreign institutions

2nd major political ecology narrative ***

conservation and control thesis

• control of resources and landscapes has been wrested from producers or producer groups through the implementation of efforts to preserve sustainability, community, or nature

• local systems of livelihood, production, and socio-political organization have been disabled by officials and global interests seeking to preserve the environment

3rd major political ecology narrative ***

environmental conflict and exclusion thesis

• increasing scarcities produced through resource enclosure or appropriation by state authorities, private firms, or social elites accelerate conflict between groups

4th major political ecology narrative ***

the environmental subjects and identity thesis

• institutionalized and power-laden environmental management regimes have led to the emergence of new kinds of people, with their own emerging self-definitions, understandings of the world, and ecological ideologies and behaviors

• people’s beliefs and attitudes do not lead to new environmental actions, behaviors, or rules systems; instead, new environmental actions, behaviors, or rules systems lead to new kinds of people

5th major political ecology narrative ***

political objects and actors thesis

• material characteristics of non-human nature and its components impinge upon the world of human struggles and are entwined within them, and so are inevitably political

• yet as these characteristics and agents assume new roles and take on new importance, they are also transformed by these interactions

technocracy

a proposed system of governance in which decision-makers are selected on the basis of their expertise in a given area of responsibility, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge

• leadership based on specialized technological knowledge

• involves application of the scientific method to solving problems

positives of technocracy

• rule through technological applications is likely to be more flexible and responsive than government bureaucracy, and less beholden to regressive ideologies

• future oriented

negatives of technocracy

• technocratic rule is likely to be maintained by those already in positions of economic power

• technocratic rule is not guaranteed to be democratic and risks ignoring those who exist at the social, political, and economic margins

terraforming

the process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, topography, and ecology of a non-Earth celestial body to be similar to the environment of Earth and thus habitable

geoengineering

a deliberate, large scale intervention of the Earth’s climate system, with the aim of reducing/mitigating the negative effects of global warming

carbon capture and storage

the process of capturing CO2 formed during power generation and industrial processes and storing it so that it is not emitted into the atmosphere

multilateral climate agreements

an international agreement involving three or more sovereign states pursuing a common goal

green new deal

goal of this deal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change while also trying to fix societal problems like economic inequality and racial injustice

climate reparations

advanced industrial nations largely responsible for GHG emissions pay money to poorer nations to fund adaptation, mitigation, and resilience-building activities

degrowth

• a socially sustainable and equitable reduction of society’s throughput

• goal is not degrow GDP. GDP will inevitably decline, but the question is whether this can happen in a socially and environmentally sustainable way

environmental justice

• focuses on the inequitable distribution of environmental benefits and risk exposure among various human groups

• EJ addresses how disadvantaged groups often bear the least responsibility for causing environmental degradation while they bear the brunt of its negative consequences

• aims to document, explain, and mitigation uneven patterns of environmental hazards

sunrise movement - core principles

• youth-led, future oriented

• decarbonization via renewable energies

• direct support for politicians who oppose the fossil fuel industry

• maintaining accountability for politicians

• emphasis on green jobs and development

fossil fuel divestment

social movement addresses cliamte change by, among other strategies, putting social, political, and economic pressure on institutions to divest their assets involved in extracting fossil fuels

traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)

• a cumulative body of knowledge and practice by accumulation and handed down through generation through traditional songs, stories and beliefs

• concerned with the relationship of living beings with their traditional groups and with their environment

water scarcity and related stats

• the lack of freshwater resources to meet water demand

• affects 4/10 people worldwide

physical scarcity

• results from inadequate water resources to meet a country’s or a region’s demand, including the water needed for ecosystems to ‘function effectively

• also occurs where water seems abundant but where resources are over-exploited and over-committed

economic scarcity

caused by a lack of investment in infrastructure or tech to draw water from rivers, aquifers, or other water sources

• results when financial or institutional factors limit people’s access to water even tho enough water exists to meet everyone’s demand

water footprint

indicates the amount of water needed to sustain a population

virtual water

volume of water required to produce consumer products, including water used in agricultural processes, packaging, and distribution

water governance

the range of political, social, economic, and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society

hydropolitics

systematic study of conflict and cooperation between states over water resources that transcend international borders

basic water service

an improved drinking water source within a round trip of 30 minutes to collect water

UN water security goals

• no open defecation

• basic access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for households, schools, and health facilities

• safely managed services

• eliminate inequalities in water access

sustainable development

the ability to make development sustainable - to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs

benefits and challenges of private water control

benefits:

• competitive markets would drive down price of water and incentivize the development of improved water delivery infrastructure

• corps can be more flexible in operations compared to govts

challenges:

• privatization limits public accountability

• the objectives of a profit-extracting water company can conflict with public interest

• rate increases

benefits and challenges of public water control

benefits of public:

• public water providers are more accountable to the general public

• not profit driven

challenges:

• public infrastructures often suffer from neglect

• water is sometimes subsidized by taxes paid by those who are not direct beneficiaries of the service

gender inequality

• in sub-saharan africa, women spend a min of 16 million hours each day collecting drinking water

• 40 billion woman-hours per year are spent fetching water in SSA alone

time poverty

greater water insecurity increases time and labor demands while decreasing overall health, negatively impacting women’s social and economic mobility

labor requirements (gender inequality)

women often manage water resources for productive and domestic purposes

• sanitation and hygiene for familial health are considered responsibility of women

health risks (gender inequality)

prolonged water hauling can lead to cumulative damage to the spine, the neck muscles, and the lower back

mobility (gender inequality)

labor demands decreases overall health, negatively impacting women’s social and economic mobility

social contexts of water insecurity in Bangladesh

• Bangladesh is a historically patriarchal society that places limits on women’s social, political, and economic mobility

• loss of rural livelihood can force male household members into wage labor in cities, leaving women to assume an increase in domestic labor

• boys are sometimes better protected in floods due to higher social valuation

strategies for addressing gender disparities in water scarcity

• international efforts, aid, and oversight

• improvements in water delivery and sanitation infrastructures

• a masculine bias remains in access to information, employment opportunities, decision-making processes, and institution building

• promotion of women’s empowerment, granting women positions of power in decision-making

hard power

the exercise of influence through coercion, relying on tactics like military force, payments, and economic sanctions

soft power

uses attraction and persuasion to change minds and influence behavior. Its sources include culture, political values, and positive global engagement

environmental justice

• fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race or income

• goal will be achieved when everyone has same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards

  • equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work

water justice

requires appreciation that there are no easy, simple or singular solutions to the global water crisis

• water problems cannot be resolved through tech alone, they are inherently ecological, political, and social

climate impacts on agricultural production

• the effects of climate change have reduced the growth of overall global agricultural productivity by 30-35 percent

five strategies for creating a sustainable food future

1. reduce growth in demand for food and other agricultural products

2. increase food production without expanding agricultural land

3. protect and restore natural ecosystems and limit agricultural land-shifting

4. increase fish supply to offset terrestrial protein demands

5. reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production

crop trust

an international organization dedicated to conserving and making crop diversity available for use globally, forever and for the benefit of everyone

svalbard global seed vault

safeguards duplicate of over 1 million seed samples from almost every country globally, with room for millions more

• its purpose is to back up genebank collections to secure the foundation for our future food supply

seed biodiversity crisis

biodiversity loss in agriculture is a pressing threat to global food systems, reducing our ability to cope with climate change, environmental degradation, and nutritional challenges

food sovereignty

focuses of food producers’ right to determine local food systems

• food is a right

• puts small scale farmers and other providers at center of food system

seed sovereignty

the farmer’s right to breed and exchange diverse open source seeds which can be saved. not patented, genetically modified, owned or controlled by emerging seed giants

la via campesina

international movement bringing tovether millions of workers and farmers from around the world. built on sense of unity and solidarity, defneds peasant agriculture for food sovereignty

seed rematriation

addresses the desire for indigenous communities to actively reclaim their ancestral seeds and traditions

new farms for new americans

• VT based program that connects refugee and immigrant families with land and resources to grow food

green revolution

agricultural techniques used in developing countries that involve new, genetically modified seeds with high yield outputs, combined with high inputs of fertilizers, irrigation techniques, and pesticides

positives of green revolution

• credited with creating food security for over a billion people

• assisted in spread of agricultural techs

• marketization of agriculture

criticisms of green revolution

• risks associated with market-enforced deregulations

• corporate influence

• secondary environmental costs

traditional knowledge

• accumulated knowledge passed down through generations

• involved in seed saving, irrigation, planting, etc

bioprospecting

• scientific research that looks for a useful application, process, or product in nature

• involves processes of discovery and commercialization of new products based in biological resources, typically in less-developed countries

• often draws on indigenous knowledge

biopiracy

commercial development of naturally occurring biological materials by a tech advanced country without fair compensation to the people/nations in whose territory the materials were discovered

biocolonialism

capitalization at the genetic level extends neocolonial relations of power

carbaryl

• pesticide commonly used throughout asia

• highly toxic, hazardous to human health

health impacts of bhopal gas disaster

• thousands dead and injured in first hours

• health complications continued long after

factors that contribute to Sultana’s claim that men and women experience climate change differently

• gendered differences in perceptions and priorities

• poor women particularly vulnerable to dramatic shifts related to water

how does lack of water strain gender roles and relations in communities (sultana)

• systemic inequities and bias in land ownership, inheritance rights

• male outmigration is more common, leading women to fend for families

what factors lead to labor disparities between men and women, esp in rural society (reading)

• men more likely to be saved in floods, own property

• women take care of children so are more likely to die from floods also fear of rape

examples of water concerns and crises in global north

• lead poisoning in flint michigan

• contaminated drinking water in cities

• california drought

features of a food polycrisis

• reliable global patterns of hunger improvements first stalled adn then reversed

• undernourishment has grown

• agricultural yields slowing while demand booms

• obesity still rising, average nutrition of veggies falling

why did traditional landraces decline in the 1970s

• tech driven green revolution led to rapid decline of traditional landraces in favor of new high yielding varieties

• Indian govt advanced cultivation of imported landraces, indigenous varieties disappeared from fields

• 90 percent lost